Definition of Terms

This is not a universal definition of terms, but a description of how these terms are being used in the CineSat documentation.

A configurable software component that is continuously active on the CineSat Server to extract near real-time forecast products from the received input data.

Raw data to radiance and temperature conversion
The process of relating the image sensor output in image pixel units (digital counts) to the measured physical units (e.g. Wm-2sr-1 or a temperature unit K^o, F^o, or C^o)

High-performance Unix server or workstation providing sophisticated capabilities for meteorological image analysis and the interactive and automatic production of short-range weather forecasts

A physical or virtual Linux workstation with high-quality and high-performance graphic capabilities running the CineSat GUI for displaying CineSat weather products, interactive data analysis, and development of new weather products.

General term for a part of a system. Components may be assembled and decomposed to form new components. Components can be meant as modules, tasks or programs, any of which may be configuration items.

ASCII text files containing parameter specifications that control the execution of CineSat functions.

The process of sending data to a number of systems (recipients) through specified interfaces, according to agreed protocols.

A CineSat tool to draw and edit weather charts and image overlays.

A specification of an interface between two systems, or a summary of all interfaces of a single system.

The ease with which software and hardware can be maintained.

A CineSat tool to define and edit geographical map projections.

Data processing results are available a few minutes after reception of the required input data.

Short-range weather forecast for the next 0 to 3 hours. This forecast time range is of increasing importance for aviation and hazard warning and requires high-performance automatic data processing support for the operational forecaster.

CineSat's Automatic Product Extraction Facility consists of a number of processing chains that poll for external or internal input files and derive a group of weather products. Processing chains may be set up separately e.g. for each data source, for certain product groups, or for research and test purposes.

Generic term for a result data file (usually image or table data) derived from external input data or from other CineSat products.

Image projection is the mapping of geographical coordinates to image pixel coordinates. The transformation of image coordinates to geographical coordinates is called inverse projection.

The process of automatically or manually (interactively) checking the extracted products with respect to their conformity with their specifications and according to predefined criteria and operator expertise. Quality control is performed before the distribution of the products, and only quality controlled products will be distributed.

The process of receiving data through specified interfaces according to agreed protocols.

The probability that software and hardware will not cause the failure of a system for a specified time under specified conditions.

The angle measured from a position on the earth pointing towards the satellite and to the zenith.

Unix Bourne-Shell command script

The geographical location where the CineSat Software is installed or used.

The interval between the nominal times of two successive real-time images. The slot duration for modern geostationary satellites is 15 minutes. A day consists of 96 slots, i.e. 96 sets of multi-spectral scans of the earth.

All input data other than direct image data that are required to extract a specific meteorological product.

The angle measured between the line from a position on the earth pointing towards the sun and the tangent plane at this position. (An elevation of zero means that the Sun is directly at the observer’s horizon - sunset).

The angle measured from a position on the earth pointing towards the sun and to the zenith.

A workstation used for display of various meteorological data and capable of displaying CineSat weather products.

Comparison of extracted products with observations and other independent data sets.

An imaginary point directly “above” a particular position on the Earth.

See Abbreviations and Acronyms